KO Music: Where Original Composition is King

Crafting original music for the moving image, KO Music works with some of the biggest directors across the globe from Ian Pons Jewell and Daniel Wolfe to Garth Davis, Derek Cianfrance, Wally Pfister, Rupert Sanders, Jeane-Pierre Jeunet and many more.

Established in 2020, the celebrated agency - with D&ADs, APAs, shots Awards, Kinsale Sharks and Cresta Awards under its belt - was born out of the pandemic by multi-award-winning composer Philip Kay and producer Andy Oskwarek, both with over a decade of experience in the industry.

Philip, who found his way into composition by less than conventional means, shares: “Original music is our passion and that passion and dedication to perfection comes through in the work. We believe in doing one thing and doing it well. By keeping the focus on what we do arguably better than anyone else (music composition) it helps us maintain the high quality of work we are known for.” 

Placing focus on the more cerebral, innovative and emotionally charged end of the musical spectrum, Phil says, “Composed music is an incredibly powerful filmmaking tool and the only way to maximise that power is to make it our number one priority.”

Co-founder and music producer Andy agrees. “We’re a creativity-driven boutique company focused on delivering the highest quality original compositions. Our approach has always been to find and craft the perfect solution rather than throwing a load of options at a project and hoping something sticks,” he says. “Once we are locked in on a brief we research meticulously and pride ourselves on attention to detail and our ability to produce work that sounds authentic, both in terms of composition and production.”

Over the course of his career, Andy has built up an impressive portfolio, working with a hugely talented roster of artists, record labels (Heavenly Recordings, Trunk Records, Glassnote, The Leaf Label, Melodic) and composers. Meeting Phil during his time working at Woodwork Music, the two bonded over a shared love of 80’s films and electronic music, building a unique relationship which led them to eventually found KO Music.

“As well as being huge music and film fans we also genuinely love advertising and the level of creativity involved. We treat every project we take on with the care and respect it deserves,” he states. 

“We have a total, all-encompassing obsession with quality,” Phil adds. “Quality as defined by two self-confessed music snobs. There's an extremely high bar and we never settle for anything less than perfection. Many of our commercial film projects are shot and directed with the vision and creativity usually associated with critically acclaimed Hollywood movies. We believe the music needs to match and attempt to exceed that level of craftsmanship, innovation and emotional resonance. It’s not an easy job but it’s one we love.”

Completing the leadership team, Andy and Phil are joined by Michelle Binieda-Mullany, the organisational backbone and experienced project and people manager with over 20 years of experience working with festivals, charities, entrepreneurs and global brands including Sony, Nintendo, Diesel, Auchentoshan, Kopparberg, Swarovski and Moby.

“Since founding the business, we’ve worked at building up our roster of talent here and have also signed some amazing composers,” Andy says. “This has enabled us to take on more work while staying true to our ethos and creative goals.

Their list of exclusive composers includes Anné Kulonen (who has scored several feature films including Paradise Highway starring Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman), Laurie Shenoda (who has scored global campaigns for brands such as Levi’s, Nike, Samsung, Amazon, and Calvin Klein as well as film projects such as A Mother’s Love, part of the BAFTA nominated Channel 4 film series On The Edge), and duo Michael Künstle and Matteo Pagamici (whose recent work includes scores for brands including Samsung, McDonalds, Pfizer, BMW, and Samsonite as well as highly successful Swiss feature films Platzspitzbaby and Off Season, and the French thriller series Hors Saison, and Neumatt - the first Swiss TV series to be picked up by Netflix - to be available soon in 190 countries).

On selecting some of their most favourite projects to date, the team highlight Les Mills – Choose Happy as their first. “This is a recent piece we did with Nice & Frank and the brilliant Andreas Nilsson,” Andy mentions. “It gave us the opportunity to create something over the top and epic which is always fun. We managed to create something huge with a handful of live musicians and singers..”

“Another piece we absolutely love is the New York Times campaign, More Of Life Brought To Life from Droga5 NY. We had the opportunity to get really creative with the music,” he continues. “The spots have a stream of consciousness, down the rabbit hole feel and our challenge was to try and capture that with the music. Phil did this by combining elements of classical music and jazz which was then run through an old Akai sampler to give it the cut and paste feel of 90’s hip hop.”

And lastly, the team selects Hennessy – Unshattered. “We’re all huge Nas fans, so getting the opportunity to rework The World Is Yours was massively exciting. We aimed to elevate the visuals and add a touch of sophistication with an orchestral take on the track.”

“We also worked with the brand on their collaboration with NBA for Game Never Stops. Phil did a wonderful job on this one. We were having conversations with Droga5 about the best way to capture the speed and excitement of both the edit and basketball in general. They were very keen for the sound effects of the court to cut through the track so Phil decided to take this a step further and record a bunch of court sounds and build a hip hop track out of them.”

On their plans for the future, Phil comments: “Music is constantly shifting, trends come and go, albeit at a more glacial pace than they once did. Technology has always had an influence on this. But through all the technological changes in music, especially in our lifetime, the power of the fundamentals of music, diligently executed, only becomes more apparent. Things like a well-crafted melody; the perfect harmonic shift; strong innovative ideas which give solid identity to a piece; that stuff becomes all the more important in order to have a deep human connection.”

“We’re looking forward to collaborating with more amazing creative people,” Andy concludes, “Whether that be filmmakers or agencies, or other musicians and artists.”

“We’re also currently developing our roster of composers and aim to gradually expand it. Some of our composers are also experienced in film and TV - that’s something we’ve always aimed to be involved in since we started. We’ve been dipping our toe into it and we love it, so there'll be a lot more of that. Hollywood here we come."